Beast Alchemist
by Grimmwauld Von Gromovich Ilexa
Summary: Alexander Crux is a young alchemist living in East City with his ailing brother William. When Alexander finds himself caught up in a conspiracy so large it could threaten the entire nation, he decides it's time to join the military - as a state alchemist. Armed with strange chimera-style alchemy and some new military weapons, he'll have to defend Amestris, as the Beast Alchemist!
1. Chapter 1

Beast Alchemist

1: Death, and Rebirth

In order to obtain, something of equal value must be lost, that is alchemy's first law of equivalent exchange. Eventually, however, this principle would be studied more, examined from every angle, and someday become what we now call thermodynamics. But my tale begins long before this term was even pondered. My name is Alexander Crux, and I am an alchemist who must, naturally, obey the laws of equivalent exchange. However, even more than just a mere alchemist, I am a state alchemist, one who has been deemed worthy of military application simply due to his scientific prowess. We are often called "dogs of the military", but I do not feel that this expression properly describes my position. You see, a dog at least has a choice. It has the ability to deny its masters orders, even if it will be punished for doing so. I do not have this privilege. I say this because of what I have done for the military, and what I had done before joining it. Because of my transgressions against humanity I do not have the privilege of choice. Hell, sometimes I even wonder if I'm still human… But then again, once I think about it I realize that I'm really not. Perhaps it would be best if I were to rewind a bit though…

It was a sunny morning, and I had just finished making a light breakfast for my brother and I. When I entered his room I saw that he was already up, so I went ahead and set the plate on his lap whilst trying not to spill the jam-covered toast onto him. He winced slightly as I sat the plate down. "Is it getting worse?" I asked. For he had an exceedingly rare and abnormal flesh-eating disease. I had contacted every doctor in the nation, though none of them could help. So all I could do was move us to East City, where Doctor Flint Marco, the nation's greatest doctor, resided. I also began studying alchemy under his tutelage so as to take better care of my brother William.

After giving William his morning medications with his breakfast, I helped him into his wheelchair and got him to the bathroom to clean him in preparation for the day. I felt worried as I was assisting him with bathing his legs, which were the most delicate area of his body seeing as they were where his illness first affected him.

"Well," I said, looking at my watch "It's about time for Dr. Marco to get here. Are you ready William?"

"As ready as I am every other day." He replied, shortly before the doorbell rang.

"Come on in Doc!" I shouted across the humble home. Dr. Marco opened the door and greeted us with his usual warmhearted smile, which has always reminded me of a grandfather smiling at his grandchildren when he hadn't seen them in a while. It always made me feel somewhat sad however, seeing his face that looked sort of like a cake that had fallen.

After going through the usual routine checkup and medical assessments Dr. Marco and I headed into the study for my lesson. Today he had me study from a few historical books because "In order to understand a scientific discovery, you must understand how it was discovered." Each book had something different in them, some city that had hosted many chimera makers, or a town where a doctor had made some incredible discovery. But all the books had one thing showing up in each of them. Something that could not be explained or even proved: They all mentioned the philosopher's stone. Any alchemist worth his salt knows about the philosopher's stone. It's a bright red stone that works as an incredibly powerful amplifier to alchemy, and it also is said to grant eternal life, and those who wield it don't have to obey the laws of equivalent exchange. The stone's very existence is, of course, total nonsense. After all: What could possibly give someone that much power, keep them from dying, AND create matter from nothing? No. Equivalent exchange is absolute, and nothing can change that.

After my study time, Dr. Marco usually had me practice some kind of practical application of alchemy. During this practice time I asked him how William seemed to be doing.

"As you know," He said, his tone growing somewhat tired and disheartened "His condition cannot be reversed, and there's no way to stop it from progressing."

I felt my heart starting to drop. I knew that most people with William's disease didn't last more than about three years after diagnosis. This year would be his fifth. "So, what are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is that his time is coming, and there's nothing we can do to stop it." I could tell by his face that it was tearing him up inside to have to tell me this. "He's maybe got a year left, probably less." He looked away from me, and I can't blame him. I must have looked like an animal caught in a trap, ready and willing to attack anything or anyone that came near it.

"So in other words, I should start to… to prepare for his passing, right?" I asked, struggling to contain my emotions.

Dr. Marco nodded, and I felt a tear rolling down my cheek. I turned away so as to keep the Doctor from seeing me weep. "Thanks doc, see you tomorrow." I said, sending him on his way.

After the doctor left I locked myself in the study and began to read. I was looking for information on the forbidden art of human transmutation. If there was nothing I could do to stop his disease, then there must be something I could do to bring him back once death had claimed him and the disease affecting him was no more. I came across a book that Marco had been reading whilst I was engrossed in my studies. He must have accidentally left it behind. The cover of the book read: "The Gateway of Alchemical Truth, by Edward Elric".

After reading a few chapters into the book, I realized that the man who wrote it was either an absolute genius, or a total nutcase. He wrote about incredible things though. According to Elric's theories, each individual human being possessed his own "Gate of Truth" which served as a sort of power outlet for their alchemy. Beyond this gate lied the ultimate truth, everything there ever was, as well as everything there ever will be on the study of alchemy. In order to see across this gate however, one would have to perform human transmutation and, in doing so, lose a part of their body. Also, one could only see through the gate a small amount, and in order to gain all the gate had to offer they would have to send their entire body, mind, and soul to the other side.

"Alex?" I heard William's voice coming from the other side of the door. It sounded somewhat… Worried? Frightened? I couldn't quite tell what was bothering him.

"Yes William?" I said, getting up to go unlock the door and see what was wrong.

The sight that greeted me on the other side of the door was something that I will never be able to forget. Even now it greets me every time I close my eyes.

William was lying on the ground next to his wheelchair, which had fallen over. His face was contorted with fear and pain and desperation. His flesh was blackening and falling off in large chunks.

"William!?" I screamed, even if it were to progress at its fastest, his disease couldn't do this level of damage in less than a month. I rushed back into my study and grabbed what few supplies I had on hand and some chalk.

"Hold on William, I'm going to fix this!" I said, not believing the words myself, and retching tears mixed with a necessity to vomit due to the smell of rotting flesh diluting the validity of my statement further. I began to rapidly draw on the floor around him, trying to keep my tears from washing away any of the chalk. Placing the ingredients within the transmutation circle around William I placed my hands on the outer rim and saw the glowing of the transmutation circle, and I felt the usual flow of energy through my body.

Once the transmutation finished, I could see that I hadn't done much to slow his death. "William…" I said, no longer able to restrain my tears "William, don't die on me… DON'T DIE WILLIAM!"

"Don't cry Alexander…" William said, smiling despite his excruciating demise "Now I get to go home, and you can live your own life. A life where you don't have to always-" He paused, coughing up blood and chunks of what I assumed to be his lungs. "One where you don't have to always take care of me…" I saw his chest rise and fall one last time, and watched the light fade from his eyes.

"William?" I said, half expecting him to wake up and tell me it was all a joke "William, you… you idiot! What the hell kind of life would I be able to live without you?! You are my life! I've been living for you up until now!" I was screaming now, not that it made much difference.

"Screaming at a dead body is pointless, you know?" I heard the voice of a man from down the hall.

"Who's there?!" I said "Are you the one who did this to William?!"

"Obviously it was his disease that killed him, but I won't say I didn't help it to progress a bit faster than ordinary." The man said. He stepped forward, and I saw that he was tall, with dark hair. He appeared to be somewhere in his mid-thirties.

"Who are you?" I said, fury rising in my voice "And how did you get in?"

"You can call me Charon." He replied calmly "And I got in via the door, you should really learn to use a lock, you know?"

I leapt at the man calling himself Charon, though he easily avoided my assault.

"Now now, is that any way to treat someone who's come to give you help?"

"What do you mean?" My patience had long since run out

"I mean that I can help you bring your dearest little brother back. All you have to do is listen to my instructions, you know?"

There was obviously going to be a catch, and there was no reason for me to trust Charon. After all, he was the one who killed William. "And why should I trust you?"

"Because if you bring your brother back, then his disease will no longer affect him. And you'll gain new powers from seeing through your gate, you know?" Ok, so he obviously knows something useful.

"And what makes you think that I believe in all that "Gate of Truth" Shit?" I was trying to milk him for any information I could get, and he knew it.

"You don't have to beat around the bush to get information, you know? I'll go ahead and tell you whatever you want. I'll even teach you everything I know, and that's a lot." He was obviously hiding something, but I was desperate.

"Fine, I'll perform your damned experiment, but ONLY if you promise it'll bring William back to life."

"That depends entirely upon you, Alexander. Now let's get started."

After getting all of the supplies that Charon had listed for me, I returned home.

"Good, good." Charon said, as I placed all of the ingredients within the circle "It wouldn't work if we didn't have all of the ingredients, you know?"

"Yeah, Yeah" I said, "What now?" I was growing impatient.

"Now we need the transmutation circle. That's kind of necessary, you know?" He said, reaching for his cane which I hadn't noticed until he reached for it. For some reason I didn't think it was necessarily used to help support him. The large red gem atop it also suggested that it wasn't for what one would ordinarily use a cane. On each flat surface of the stone there was engraved a different transmutation circle. I recognized some of them from my books. Earth alchemy, Ice alchemy, even medical alchemy; there were even more transmutation circles that I couldn't recognize.

He tapped his cane on the floor twice, placing his thumb on one side of the stone in particular. At his activation of the circle, the floor began to glow and parts of it sunk in, forming a new transmutation circle with Williams's bloody corpse in the center.

"There, we're all set. We've got the ingredients, the circle, now all we need is for you to start it all up, you know?" Charon said, stepping back so as to give me the stage.

Stepping forward, I kneeled down next to the circle. "William…" I whispered "I hope to God this works." I then placed my hands on the edge of the circle. I felt the surge of energy from the circle run through my body, saw the circle begin to glow, and watched the ingredients begin to converge. Then, severe pain, followed by total darkness.


	2. Chapter 2: A New Beginning

Beast Alchemist

2: A New Beginning

I awoke with a start, and felt severe pain shoot through my left arm; or at least, where my left arm would've been. I screamed in agony and terror when I saw the blood gushing out of where my shoulder joint used to be.

"Now now," said Charon, extraordinarily calm for someone watching a man bleed out after performing the most taboo of alchemical procedures. "Calm down, or else you'll lose too much blood before I can stop you from dying." He twisted his cane around before placing his thumb on one of the transmutation circles I recognized from Dr. Marco's work and tapping his cane on my shoulder.

"GAAAAHHHH!" I exclaimed. "You son of a bitch! I'm going to tear you to shreds!" I tried standing, fell, then tried to stand again before Charon shoved me down.

"I think I'll leave until you've had a chance to cool your head." He said. "And besides, I don't like unexpected guests, you know?" He then left out of the window and disappeared down the street.

At the same time, I heard the door open and Dr. Marco saying "I'm sorry for being late today, I had some errands I had to ru- Alexander?! Alexander, what happened?!" He must've seen Williams body by now. I had tried to ignore it, the disgusting, bloody mass that was hardly recognizable as human.

A few minutes passed by as Doctor Marco tended to me in a rather flustered manner, after which he turned his attention to the crux of the matter.

"Alexander, what did you do?" He asked, though it was plain to see that he knew even without me telling him.

"Doc," I said, the fire that was in my voice when I claimed I would kill Charon was dying out "Why didn't you just let me lay here and die?"

"Because life is something to be valued, Alexander. " He said. And, looking over at what was once William's body he added: "And as I'm sure you've found out: once a life is lost, it can't be brought back."

After calling some friends of his and getting a few favors taken care of so that I wouldn't be charged with performing a taboo Doctor Marco came to me again, this time with a very serious look on his face. "Alexander, I'm not telling you that what you did was right. Quite the opposite, I'm going to send you to spend some time with an old friend of mine who I think can tell you just how wrong it was. For now, I'm going to try to smooth things over with the authorities and keep you from being arrested."

I simply nodded in agreement without thinking. I could hardly sort out exactly what I had done, let alone what I was going to do next.

A few days passed, and after making sure that I had everything ready for the umpteenth time I set off for the train station. I handed my ticket over to the conductor before boarding, after which he returned the torn stub for when the train was checked.

After I seated myself in one of the more deserted cars I took out one of my alchemy books and began to read. It had taken some getting used to, but I could now turn pages fairly easily without having to set a book down. Using my thumb to turn the pages, I continued reading until I was too tired to continue, at which point I slept.

The sound of the conductor over the loudspeaker woke me. "Attention passengers, we will be reaching the Risembool station in approximately five minutes. Please collect whatever luggage you have and prepare to disembark. This is our last stop of the evening. Once again, we will be reaching the Risembool station in approximately five minutes. Please collect whatever luggage you have and prepare to disembark."

As I stepped off of the train and onto the platform I reached into my pocket. A task I found somewhat difficult to do without dropping my two small bags off of my shoulders. As I finally managed to get the small piece of paper with the directions from Doctor Marco out of my pocket and unfolded in order to read it, a pair of children approached me.

"Are you Mr. Alexander?" one of them said. He looked to be about ten or eleven years old, and a small girl stood cowering behind him. Could she be his younger sister?

"Yes, that's me. But how did you know that?" I replied sharply. I had never been to this town before, and there was no reason for the local children to know my name.

"Our parents…" The girl started, but when I looked at her she flinched and looked away. I must've been quite a terrifying sight. A man with only one arm, and cold eyes that had dark bags under them due to a lack of sleep after what had happened.

"Hey!" The boy shouted. "You better not make Cindy cry!" He must be trying to show off in the big brother sort of way that I used to for William.

"Alright, sorry" I said so dryly that it was beyond obvious that I wasn't feeling remotely apologetic. "But I take it she was trying to say that your parents sent you to fetch me?"

The girl nodded, and the boy started to walk away at an energetic pace saying: "Follow me!"

After a short walk down some rural paths along farmland, we reached one of the few houses in the area. Posted outside was a sign that read "Auto Mail" in large black letters.

"You wait here!" the boy said as I approached the front steps. He then rushed inside.

I looked around as I waited. The area was pleasant, quiet, and disconnected from the harsh smells and noises of the city. I could see why the Doctor had sent me out here.

After a few minutes the door opened again, only this time a woman stood to greet me. She was downright beautiful, with long blonde hair, fair skin, and for some reason: an oil soaked apron. "You must be Alexander Crux." The woman said.

"Y-Yeah…" I replied, somewhat dumbfounded.

"Dad! This guy's looking at mama all funny!" I heard the boy shout from a little farther in the house, followed by a furious shouting fit. "Oh hell no he's not! If you even think of laying a finger on my wife then you've got another thing coming!"

As the man stepped onto the front porch around his wife I chuckled slightly. He was a rather short man, nearly a full head shorter than myself.

"What's so funny?! Oh, so you think I'm short huh?! You think I'm a little pipsqueak so small you couldn't see me without a microscope?! You think I'm like an amoeba?! Why I oughta-" he stopped abruptly, as anyone would if they were hit in the back of the head with a wrench.

"Edward, that is no way to treat our guest!" I was very taken aback by this sudden outburst. After all, what kind of normal relationship warrants a woman to hit her husband in the head with a wrench?! "I'm sorry about my husband's behavior" She said, back to the mild mannered woman I saw a few moments ago. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Winry Elric, and this" She whacked her husband on the arm with her wrench again. "Is my husband, Edward. I believe you've already met our children, Edmund and Cindy."

"Yes." I replied again. "Excuse me, but did you say your name was Elric? As in the same Elric who wrote 'The Gateway of Alchemical Truth'?"

"Oh, so you're familiar with my work?" Edward said. It seemed as if his wife's beatings had served their purpose. "Is that why you came here? If you want an autograph then forget it. I don't sign things for people who look at my wife." Or maybe the wrench hadn't worked as well as I thought.

"Actually, no." I said, growing impatient. "I came because Dr. Marco asked me to."

"Oh…" Edward replied. I took it as meaning he had been informed of my situation ahead of time. "Come on in then, we need to talk."

After stepping inside and settling on the couch Edward said: "So, your brother died and you tried to bring him back to life. Is that right?"

Hearing the words spoken so nonchalantly stung. I had, after all, performed a taboo, and lost a limb. And that's not even touching on the subject of what I saw after I blacked out…

"Don't worry; I'm not here to judge. I've got no right to, seeing as I did the same exact thing."

I felt my jaw lower in disbelief. This man, who wrote about human transmutation, and warned of the consequences it could have, had actually attempted it. It made sense once I thought about it. After all: how else would he have known so much about it? But still…

"What are you staring at?!" He asked. He must've seen me looking him over, trying to figure out what he had lost in equivalent exchange.

"You don't appear to have lost any limbs…" I noted his exposed hands. His legs didn't appear to be auto mail either, although that may have simply been due to the fact that I wasn't able to see them through his pants and shoes. "And you look to be in well enough health that internal organs are out of the question… Oh." My face expressed pity. "I'm so, so sorry. I mean, if I'd lost that… I'd be angry all the time too…"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" He replied viciously, reaching for a large hammer which was resting on a nearby table.

"Edward lost his left leg trying to bring back his mother." Winry said whilst trying to physically restrain her husband.

"Oh…" I deflated a bit. Of course there would be some sort of sad story behind his reasoning. "But wait a minute…" After thinking about it for a moment I had realized a hole in his story. "I thought you said you did the same thing as me, so that would mean that you tried to bring back your brother too! Unless you were lying…"

"That's a long story." Edward said, looking awkward.

"I've got nothing but time." I responded.

"True enough I suppose." He said. "I guess I could spend a little time telling my tale…"

At these words I heard the sound of scrambling footsteps as Edmund and Cindy ran into the room shouting: "Daddy's going to tell one of his stories, yay!"

After a few hours of him telling his tales of action and adventure alongside his brother Alphonse, Edward reached what was apparently the climax of his story.

"And after Al sacrificed his soul for equivalent exchange to give me my arm back I managed to beat back homunculus and save countless lives in the process!"

"Wait wait wait." I interrupted "You mean to tell me that you've lost two limbs, gotten one back, helped Furor Mustang reach his position, AND saved all of Amestris?"

"Yup!" Edward replied. "Me and Al, the invincible duo!"

"But then, what happened to Alphonse?" I asked. Surely he couldn't have died back there…

Edwards face fell, and he appeared to be somewhat crestfallen. "About that…"

But at that moment, the front door opened and two more people came inside. "Sorry we're so late!" A man's voice called, "We took a bit longer than usual to close down the restaurant. Oh, I see the guest Dr. Marco sent is here already!"

I saw Edward snicker at me out of the corner of my eye. "You have a sick, sick sense of humor, you know that?"

"Yeah, yeah." Edward said. "So after all was said and done I gave up my gate of truth to bring Alphonse here back from the other side."

"I get it," Alphonse said, picking up on the situation at last. "Edward must have been telling you about how we got our bodies back! Well after I got my body back, we traveled around for a while to continue our alchemical research before coming back here to settle down. Ed and Winry have kept Granny's shop in business, and Mei and I opened up a restaurant! In fact, I don't think I've introduced you to my lovely wife yet. Mei! Come say hello to our guest!"

"I'm coming!" The voice emanating from the kitchen sounded like that of a child. A few moments later a very small woman appeared out of the kitchen and came to stand next to Alphonse, hardly reaching his chest. "Hi there, I'm Mei Elric! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Winry then stood up and said: "Well, now that the introductions are all out of the way and our wonderful chef is here, it's time you and I had a little talk Alexander."

"Me?! A talk about what?!" I responded in a flustered manner.

"Don't act so nervous, I just need to talk to you about your new auto mail." Winry replied.

"My WHAT?!" I was furious. Not only had Dr. Marco sent me to a strange town in the middle of nowhere, but he expected me to get a new arm while I was there!

"Oh calm down, you've got excellent health insurance thanks to your brother, so it'll hardly cost you anything!" Something about that smile on her face told me that even after the insurance that this wasn't going to be cheap…

After Winry and I had our discussion about my auto mail (I had decided to go with a simple, yet fairly dexterous model) we all sat around the dinner table and had a traditional Xinghese meal. Once we were finished with dinner and the children were put to bed I decided that I would turn in for the night as well. Winry showed me to my room, then returned downstairs to finish cleaning up.

Despite being exhausted. Despite having a full stomach and a comfortable bed; despite all these things I was still unable to sleep that night. After several restless hours of tossing and turning I gave up. I got up and stepped over to the window so as to enjoy the nighttime view out of the small window. It was then that I became fully awake.

I ran down the stairs and strait out of the front door. "Charon, you stupid son of a bitch!" I shouted, not caring who would be woken by the noise.

"Hey now," He said, for I had seen him from the window upstairs. "I thought you've been cooling your head all this time!" He was easily dodging my furious blows, which couldn't have been that difficult due to my lack of limbs. "And besides, you'll wake up this cozy little family you're staying with."

My anger began to subside, as I could tell he wasn't looking for a fight. "Alright, well what do you want?" I asked sharply. "Tell me before I change my mind about not killing you!"

"Oh, my dear Alexander…" He sighed. "You couldn't kill me if you tried. Tried again that is. You'll need to be much stronger for that to happen, you know? Besides, I've still got a use for you."

"If you think that I'll be taking any orders from you then you're dumber than you look!"

"You will take orders from me because you're too weak to stop me!" Charon had finally seemed to lose his cool for a moment. "I'm sorry about that, I must've let my emotions get the better of me. Anyway, I need you to learn alchemy from the Elric Brothers. You were going to anyway, so this shouldn't be a problem for you, you know?"

I scrutinized him, looking for some sort of tell. Searching for any hint that could tell me what he's after; but to no avail. "All right," I said resentfully. "I'll just follow your orders till I'm strong enough to kill you, all right?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way. You know?" Charon then left, walking along the dirt path towards the train station. I then began to creep back inside and upstairs. It was a wonder I didn't wake anyone with all my shouting. But then again, maybe they heard, and just didn't care…


End file.
